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On Wednesday, local police said that aggressive bears, starving because their natural food sources were destroyed by floods, are becoming a growing threat for villagers in the Russian Far East. According to Yevgeny Shukshin, police chief of Polina Osipenko Raion in Khabarovsk Krai, bears currently have difficulty finding their usual food… berries and salmon… because of floods. He said, “Chances of meeting a predator have increased. Hunger drives the animals closer to humans; it forces them to search for food in garbage dumps. More and more often, we’re informed of bears approaching villages”. In one such incident, police dealt with an aggressive bear, which dangerously approached a group of children picking mushrooms. At once, the cops tried to scare the animal off, but it ran towards them, so, they killed it. Due to the flooding, which has occurred over several weeks, an emergency was declared in four Far Eastern areas… Amur Oblast, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast (Birobidzhan), Khabarovsk Krai, and Primorsky Krai… as well as in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). On Tuesday, Vladimir Pysin, Deputy Presidential Envoy to the Russian Far East, said that the overall damage is currently estimated at 30 billion roubles (900 million USD. 937 million CAD. 980 million AUD. 684 million Euros. 576 million UK Pounds). In three of the affected regions… Amur Oblast, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, and Khabarovsk Krai… the floods affected 190 settlements with almost 9,500 buildings.